Severe Weather

Sheboygan Shipwreck Named Historic Site

A Lake Michigan ship that sank in 1880 in southeastern Wisconsin has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.

The canaller Walter B. Allen sank in a storm in April 1880 about seven miles from Sheboygan. It's upright in about 170 feet of water.

"This ship is remarkably intact. It's one of the best preserved in Lake Michigan," said Jim Draeger, deputy state historic preservation officer at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison.

Putting the ship on the register will let the public know these kinds of ships exist in the Great Lakes and it also protects the property under state law, he told the Sheboygan Press.

According to the society's Maritime Underwater Archaeology, the Walter B. Allen was called a canaller because it was built to fit through the Welland Canal locks that connect Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, bypassing Niagara Falls.

It was built in 1866 and was the largest of the canaller class of schooners built on the Great Lakes. It typically shipped grain from Chicago to Buffalo or Oswego, N.Y., and then returned with coal.

It was while on the Chicago-to-Buffalo run, loaded with 19,000 bushels of grain, that it ran aground on April 11, 1880, on South Manitou Island at the north end of Lake Michigan in a storm.

Copyright 2012 by
The Associated Press.
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Comments

The views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use.